“I can’t be happy every day but I can be cheerful.”

In youth we run into difficulties. In old age difficulties run into us.

I really do believe I can accomplish a great deal with a big grin, I know some people find that disconcerting, but that doesn’t matter.

I know that anybody who does all this and doesn’t have to, everything thinks she’s very driven. The truth is, I enjoy it all so! Can’t it be that simple?

When you’re in love, the whole world is Jewish.

There is no short cut to a place worth going.

I can make a pretty tone as well as anyone, but there are times when the drama of a scene demands the opposite of a pretty sound.

Art is the signature of civilizations.

I’ve always tried to be cheerful, because I think people who whine are boring, and I never could tolerate bores.

I never share credit or desserts.

There is something in me-I just can’t stand to admit defeat.

My voice had a long, nonstop career. It deserves to be put to bed with quiet and dignity, not yanked out every once in a while to see if it can still do what it used to do. It can’t.

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

When you execute those somersaults flawlessly, the audience feels the same sense of triumph the performer does.

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.

Opera is an extremely disciplined art form, and every excess a singer indulges in has a direct effect on the voice.

A primary function of art and thought is to liberate the individual from the tyranny of his culture in the environmental sense and to permit him to stand beyond it in an autonomy of perception and judgment.

The cheerful loser is a sort of winner.

The cheerful live longest in years, and afterwards in our regards. Cheerfulness is the off-shoot of goodness.

Difficulties, by bracing the mind to overcome them, assist cheerfulness, as exercise assists digestion.

Let’s be cheerful! We have no more right to steal the brightness out of the day for our own family than we have to steal the purse of a stranger.

I am watching the Earth. The visibility is good. I feel well and cheerful. The machine is functioning normally.

The banjo is such a happy instrument–you can’t play a sad song on the banjo – it always comes out so cheerful.

People in general want to build somebody up and then try to knock them down. They always root for the underdog.

A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds.